Chapter 22 - Welcome, Heroes! (1)

1

[00:00:00]

The time in the sky reached zero.

“Zero!”

The hunters cheered. Many pulled off their hats and tossed them into the air. Thousands of hats rose from the square at once, like countless dandelion seeds swirling on a spring day.

Before all the hats could fall back down—

[Attention, everyone.]

A voice echoed from the sky, declaring to all:

[As of today, the tutorial has ended.]

The preview had finally drawn to a close.

[Once again, attention, everyone.]

[As of today, the tutorial has ended.]

And at last, the curtain had risen on the main stage!

“Wooooo!”

People roared in excitement. Heat, passion, frenzy. How long had it been since the hunters had burned this hot? Old people who had retired from the front lines to open shops, middle-aged people who had given up on climbing higher and settled for the second-floor hunting grounds—all were cheering in the square now.

At least in this moment, every one of them was a hunter.

“Floor eleven! Floor eleven! Floor eleven!”

“Open the eleventh floor already!”

“Hey, the news just dropped... This...”

Was it answering their fervor?

The rays of light forming the clock in the sky burst into a brilliant radiance, as intense as the sun. The hunters squeezed their eyes shut, barely managing to look up through gaps between their fingers. I was no exception.

[Warriors. You who climb the Tower.]

[Congratulations on overcoming the resentment of the Infernal Mansion.]

A gigantic human floated in the sky. No, perhaps I should call her an angel or a goddess rather than a human. Her white robes fluttered as she radiated holy light.

It was a sacred sight worthy of a painting in a temple.

“Ooooh...”

“She’s beautiful...”

Exclamations of wonder rose throughout the square. Most of the hunters were entranced. That was how beautiful the goddess appearing overhead was.

“Zombie, get a grip. That’s no goddess.”

The attendant spirit, however, remained levelheaded. The Sword Emperor, who had conquered the Tower through the ninety-ninth floor in another world, was not taken in by the scene before him.

“It’s just a system explaining your quest to you.”

“... So, a kind of NPC?”

“Yep. Even if a goddess does exist, that’s nothing but a prerecorded video. It plays automatically when you clear floor ten. Tsk, tsk. Pathetic.”

Suddenly, I wondered.

“How do you know that?”

“Huh? Because...”

Just as the attendant spirit was about to answer—

[Warriors! There is a world that longs for your helping hands. That world is under invasion by a terrifying Demon King. You will now be summoned there as heroes and entrusted with the mission of saving humanity. If you wish to accept this mission, say ‘Teleport’—]

TAP!

Before the voice could finish, someone leaped into the air.

“Hup!”

The hunter landed lightly on a rooftop. Three stories, five stories, seven stories. In an instant, he bounded up progressively taller buildings before pushing off hard from the square’s bell tower. Then he soared high into the open sky.

The Sword Star.

Markus Kallenberg.

“Hah!”

The current number-one hunter’s sword strike split the sky. The goddess lay in the blade’s path, and her figure was cleaved in two.

It was a beautiful, swift strike.

People gaped at the events that had unfolded in an instant.

“Uh, wha...?”

But only for a moment.

The goddess’s illusion, split in two, quickly restored itself. Just as slicing seawater accomplished nothing, the goddess regained her beauty exactly as it had been and spoke again.

[... If you wish to accept this mission, say ‘Teleport.’ Warriors, you will then take your grand first step onto the eleventh floor.]

The goddess’s figure still radiated light.

There was light, but it was no longer holy.

A god torn apart once was no longer a god.

“Hmm.”

The Sword Star landed lightly on the belfry’s roof. The old man wore a black suit, just as he had the day I first saw him in the bar. The elderly swordsman looked up at the sky as though something displeased him, then slowly lowered his gaze to the square beneath the bell tower.

“...”

Silence settled over the square.

“Hmm,” the attendant spirit said. “I did that back in the day, too. See? It’s an NPC, right?”

I was dumbfounded.

‘... You couldn’t rest until you checked that?’

“Yep. I don’t understand the guys who don’t check. When some gigantic thing appears out of nowhere, don’t you want to slash it with your sword first? Isn’t that just human nature?”

‘Good grief.’

They really were lunatics. Birds of a feather did flock together.

I enhanced my sight and hearing with aura and watched the Sword Star, taking care not to meet his eyes.

“Teleport,” he murmured quietly.

Light identical to the goddess’s radiance flashed around the elderly swordsman. A moment later, he vanished without a trace. Only white bird droppings remained on the Italian-style bell tower’s roof.

“Ahahaha!”

Laughter burst out in the silent square. The hunters turned their heads.

It came from the Inquisitor, the Pantheon’s guild leader. He laughed brightly.

“He’s beaten us to it again! Ah! What a wonderful day!”

The Inquisitor removed his priest’s hat and bowed politely to the people watching him.

“Then I’ll see you all on floor eleven! Teleport!”

Pure white light enveloped him. The next instant, he disappeared. Only after staring blankly at his departure did the hunters finally realize.

“Uh...”

The Sword Star and the Inquisitor had reached the eleventh floor one step ahead of them.

That set everything off.

“T-teleport!”

“Teleport!”

“Teleport!”

Countless hunters hurriedly shouted the command. Light flashed again and again! In an instant, the square was engulfed in brilliant light. Each shout sent another beam soaring upward. The beams rising from the square soon numbered in the thousands, then tens of thousands, lighting up the sky.

[Warriors. You who climb the Tower.]

Even amid all this, the goddess’s illusion continued to speak softly.

[From the eleventh floor to the twentieth, you will face a trial. A trial of faith.]

The goddess brought both hands together at her chest, as though offering a prayer somewhere.

[... You will find an answer. The answer you find will, in turn, reveal who you are. Thus shall you come to know yourselves...]

But few listened to the goddess’s illusion. Everyone was busy, desperate not to fall behind the others.

Even the few who remained merely held up cameras or smartphones to film her.

“What a shame.”

Someone approached me and murmured those words.

It was the Paladin, deputy guild leader of the Vigilantes.

“A shame?”

“Think about it. We don’t know who or what built this Tower, but surely they put an enormous amount of effort into it. That must be a message left for us, too. Yet no one cares.”

The Paladin looked forlorn.

“This should be a sight we gaze up at with a little more wonder. The existence of a Tower like this, our ability to use skills—they should all be astonishing miracles... But we’ve already grown accustomed to everything on the first ten floors.”

“You’re surprisingly sentimental.”

“Mm. I majored in music in the outside world.”

The Paladin grinned.

“Does a woman who graduated from music school seem a little more attractive?”

“Ah... Sounds like it would be hard to make a living.”

“Oof. Stabbing me with facts.”

We chuckled together.

The attendant spirit sidled between us.

“Zombie, be careful. This person’s suspicious. Got it?”

‘Oh, what is it now?’

“There’s no way she’d approach an ugly mug like you without an ulterior motive. Are you good-looking? Have you got a decent personality? Both are crap. Hah! I’ve got her figured out! This woman’s a black-hearted con artist! One hundred percent!”

This guy really... No. Let’s just not talk.

“Excuse me!”

Just then, people carrying cameras approached us. They didn’t seem to be reporters, but people who posted their own broadcasts online.

“Th-the man standing there... You’re Hunter Kim Gongja, aren’t you?”

“Oops.”

The Paladin suddenly looked annoyed.

“It seems I’ve drawn attention to you. Sorry, Kim Gongja. I’ll head to floor eleven first.”

“... Wait. Did you approach me on purpose to make this happen?”

A reasonable suspicion suddenly occurred to me.

The Paladin looked caught out.

“Haha. You see, I have an eye for gauging people’s true feelings.”

An eye for gauging people’s true feelings?

Did she mean she was confident in her ability to judge character?

The Paladin scratched the back of her head like a mischievous child.

“I wanted to talk for a moment and find out what sort of person you are. Consider it an expression of interest.”

“So what sort of person do I seem to be?”

“Hmm. Well, let’s say the answer lies within your heart. Teleport!”

Good lord.

She was running away without even trying to hide it.

In the end, the Paladin threw me to the reporters as prey and escaped alone.

“Hah! See? I was right, wasn’t I? My predictions are never wrong!”

‘Damn it, shut up.’

Once the Paladin vanished, even more people swarmed toward me. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by streamers and reporters.

“Hunter Kim Gongja! Just a word, please!”

“Is it true you cleared the tenth-floor boss alone? There’s widespread speculation that your simultaneous guild memberships were a scenario arranged in advance by the major guilds!”

“An official announcement identified you as E-rank. A great many people are questioning that. Could you confirm whether the official announcement is...”

“What is your relationship with the Vigilantes’ Paladin? You looked very close. Are you deeply involved in private as well?”

“Hunter Kim Gongja!”

Wow.

‘So this is the [Countless Requests for Handshakes] that supposedly only successful hunters get...’

Experiencing it firsthand, I could understand why that bastard Flame Emperor found reporters annoying.

I considered how to respond, then decided to make just one statement.

“I’ll be the one to clear floor twenty, too.”

“What?”

“Keep up the good work, everyone. Teleport.”

White light flared up from beneath my feet.

“Ah, w-wait! Hunter Kim Gongja!”

“No! Grab him!”

“Please, just a few more questions—”

Sorry.

I happen to think an air of mystery is the best approach.

[You who climb the Tower.]

Just before the light engulfed me completely, the goddess’s voice echoed through the square one last time.

[May fortune be with you.]

2

The light surrounding me flashed, then subsided. Slowly, I began to see what lay before me.

The first thing that came into view was... a vast battlefield.

GRRRR!

CHWIIK! CHWII!

Monsters.

Hideous creatures swarmed toward us from beyond the horizon. Goblins, orcs, ogres. The monsters we had seen throughout the first ten floors of the tutorial were now charging together, regardless of species.

Their sheer numbers were like a swarm of ants.

“Stop them!”

“I-it’s impossible! There are too many enemies!”

“Do not retreat! If we’re pushed back here, the empire is finished!”

The defenders standing against that horde... amounted to a mere handful.

Was their civilization somewhere between antiquity and the Middle Ages? A group of armored soldiers was doing everything it could to hold the port. Their backs were to the water. With a deep river behind them, the human soldiers resisted desperately.

“What the hell?”

“What’s going on...?”

“Whoa! E-everyone, watch out for arrows! They’re flying everywhere!”

The hunters suddenly summoned onto the battlefield looked around in bewilderment.

Their confusion was understandable. Until now, they had only hunted monsters in [Safely Prepared Hunting Grounds]. They had never experienced a battlefield like this, where disaster could strike at any moment.

But beyond floor ten, sights like this were an everyday occurrence.

‘The tutorial really is over.’

A battlefield where your head could go flying at any moment.

A battleground where you had to stake your life on every single floor.

“Oh!”

Someone approached the hunters left bewildered by their sudden summoning. His armor was quite ornate; apparently, he was no ordinary soldier. The general exclaimed as he addressed us.

“Thank you! You’ve come to aid our empire, heroes!”

A stir ran through the hunters.

“Heroes? What’s he talking about?”

“Idiot, didn’t you hear the angel in the square? She said they’re being invaded by a Demon King. We must be playing the heroes.”

“We can’t hear you back here!”

“Whoa, is this real? Are those soldiers actual humans or NPCs...?”

“Quiet over there, please!”

The chatter continued.

Even as the hunters talked, more arrivals kept appearing. People shoved against one another, mingling into a mass. It was pure chaos.

“Heroes! Please, help us save the empire!”

Fortunately, a few capable hunters, myself included, knew how to enhance their sight and hearing with aura. While the less skilled rank and file remained utterly disoriented, a small number of hunters listened to the general NPC.

“This port is the empire’s last lifeline. We must hold it if the imperial capital is to keep receiving supplies. Heroes who have crossed over from another world! Please, join us in defending the Aegim Empire!”

Then a voice rang in my head.

[You have been assigned the eleventh-floor quest.]

Letters appeared before my eyes.

+

[Defend the Supply Route]

Difficulty: F–A

Mission Objective: Disaster has descended upon the Aegim Empire. The Demon King. A being known only through legends has finally raised an army. The Demon King is cunning, vicious, and powerful. His first aim is to cut off the Aegim Empire’s supply route.

Defend the port!

This battle will be the first step toward saving the empire.

※ However, if you lose the battle, the twelfth floor will not open.

+

Seeing is believing, as they say.

“A quest...?”

“See? A Demon King really has appeared.”

“Where the hell is the Aegim Empire?”

The hunters who had been so confused a moment before slowly began to grasp the situation. Some drew their weapons without a word; others formed teams with their companions.

And one hunter unleashed a sword strike at the goblins.

“I see.”

The Sword Star, standing at the very front, murmured as he drew his blade back.

Blood sprayed before him. Five or six monsters lost their heads and collapsed to the ground like straw.

“... I don’t know the details, but it seems we just need to cut them down.”

Then the Sword Star plunged into the front lines.

At the sight, even the dazed hunters raised their voices in a roar.

“Woooo!”

“All right! Follow the Sword Star!”

“You fucking goblin bastards! I’ve chopped off thousands of your heads over the past six years!”

Thousands of hunters charged in with weapons in hand, and thousands more followed. The defenders, who had been pushed back one-sidedly, saw their fighting strength swell in an instant.

As the war turned into a vicious brawl—

“Okay.”

I was smiling at the rear.

Because I heard a voice the other hunters could not hear.

[Welcome, Hunter Kim Gongja.]

[You will now receive your reward for clearing the tenth floor.]

A voice announcing my own exclusive privilege.